Selfless Service Needs A Comeback

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Selfless Service Needs A Comeback

When people like Senator Mark Hatfield were in office you had true public servants.

Yes, I said SERVANTS.

That’s what our elected officials are supposed to be but most rarely come even close to hitting the mark. (no pun intended)

People who worked with parties not for a party.

People who saw a big picture not their name in lights and pocketbooks filled with dollars earned screwing the public.

One person I still consider to be in the same list with people like Hatfield is former Oregon Senator Betsy Johnson.

I met her years ago when I lost the race for Secretary of State in Oregon. Kathy and I were sitting in a bar in Astoria Oregon when she and some of her Democrat Senate friends walked in. They sat with us and in a moment where I felt like a total loser, she told me how well I did and how scared Kate Brown, my opponent at the time, was that I was going to beat her.

She was a dear friend of Senator Hatfield. A few years later when some Portland documentary producers asked me to join them on a project about Senator Hatfield, Betsy was more than happy to donate money and time to the cause.

Over the years our friendship has grown. I trust this woman and I know she trusts me. The clip up top is from a recent video podcast we did together where she talks about life after losing a race for Oregon Governor and more.

What I love about her and others do to is her honesty. She doesn’t hold back and never has. She would have made an amazing governor for Oregon but perhaps Oregon is ready for that kind of upfront leadership just yet.

She said something in the interview yesterday that stuck out for me.

She wonders, and so do I, if things in Oregon won’t have to get even worse before people are willing to throw their partisan bullshit out the window, admit they were wrong and start over.

Betsy is what Oregon used to be about. She fights for what’s right not what’s on the party platform. She doesn’t vote for someone based on a letter in front of their name she votes based on their character and what they can do.

Oregonians had their chance but fear won and the old machine is massaging itself, lining its power-pockets and hurting Oregonians. You get what you ask for.

We need to get back to a culture, not just Oregon but all of us, where we discuss ideas not shove ours down the throats of others.

I have great hope we are on that road but fear it’s going to get worse in order to get our lazy asses off the couch and into the town square.

Ask any service group, rotary or church organization. When it comes to people serving, most just sit in the pew while a handful do all the work.

We each need to start thinking big picture….that means not focused on what’s best for us and our business but what’s best for the town, county, state and our country.

On one hand it saddens me to see all the attention paid to boycotts and radical activist twisting messages to fit their narrative and then trying to cancel people.

Canceling doesn’t work, it won’t work and if these folks would open their eyes and their minds they’d realize their messages are flat and more American’s are standing up and using their pocketbooks as their voice.

But on the other hand I’m glad the quiet are starting to yell.

Apathy is the real enemy here and we let this go on far too long.

No one can cancel you unless you let them.

No one can take away your voice you have to give that away.

Sure, they can make our lives miserable but only if we focus on their foolishness instead of the good things we can do to muffle their messages.

Calling names, bullying and trying to scream loudest, are old techniques that work for awhile. But, trust me as someone who finds himself in their line of sight, what you think of yourself is far more important and when you do things for the right reasons and to find the truth, you are set free and all their nasty lies fall to the ground around you.

America is on the rebound and you and I get to be a part of that. How will you participate? Sitting on the sidelines hoping you don’t get called onto the field to play, or sticking your neck out, refusing to let them set the tone by standing up and speaking up for what’s right?

For more of our interview with Betsy Johnson visit @rickdancertv on Youtube or our other social media channels.